In dairy-related news the second week of July 2025:
- Southern border ports closed to livestock just days after reopening
- Disaster assistance available for farmers
- Base change approaching for calving traits
- World Dairy Expo Dairy Cattle Show entries now open
Southern border ports closed to livestock just days after reopening
After a new case of New World screwworm (NWS) was reported in Ixhuatlan de Madero, Veracruz, in Mexico, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins shut down U.S. southern border ports to livestock trade.
The USDA was implementing a risk-based phased port reopening strategy for cattle, bison and equine from Mexico beginning as early as July 7. However, this new case was detected approximately 160 miles northward of the current sterile fly dispersal grid, on the eastern side of the country and 370 miles south of the U.S./Mexico border. This new northward detection comes approximately two months after northern detections were reported in Oaxaca and Veracruz, less than 700 miles away from the U.S. border, which triggered the closure of the ports to Mexican cattle, bison and horses on May 11.
“The United States has promised to be vigilant – and after detecting this new NWS case, we are pausing the planned port reopening’s to further quarantine and target this deadly pest in Mexico. We must see additional progress combating NWS in Veracruz and other nearby Mexican states in order to reopen livestock ports along the southern border,” Rollins said.
Disaster assistance available for farmers
The USDA announced that agricultural producers who suffered eligible crop losses due to natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 can now apply for $16 billion in assistance through the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP).
To expedite the implementation of SDRP, the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is delivering assistance in two stages. This first stage is open to producers with eligible crop losses that received assistance under crop insurance or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program during 2023 and 2024. Stage One sign-up will start in person at FSA county offices on July 10 and prefilled applications were mailed to producers on July 9. SDRP Stage Two sign-ups for eligible shallow or uncovered losses will begin in early fall.
To apply for SDRP, producers must submit the FSA-526, Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) Stage One Application, in addition to having other forms on file with FSA.
Base change approaching for calving traits
On Aug. 12, calving traits calculated by the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) for Holstein and Brown Swiss will undergo both a phenotypic and genetic base change. This comes after the routine five-year base change was delayed for the April 2025 evaluations following unanticipated results. Further investigation has validated the initial calculations.
In the calving ease and stillbirth evaluations, a sire-maternal grandsire threshold model is used, where outputs are expressed in terms of probabilities or frequencies of difficult calvings (or stillbirth). In this model, the observed calving difficulty (or stillbirth) is understood as a combination of two factors: genetics (which we aim to improve through selection) and environment (management factors such as feeding and gestation practices). Environmental effects are incorporated into the final predicted transmitting ability (PTA) because, for example, sires’ daughters calving in a “poor” environment will generally experience more difficult calvings, while daughters calving in a “good” environment will tend to have easier births.
In the Holstein breed, the average frequency of difficult calvings on first-parity cows from bulls born in 2020 (reported as Sire Calving Ease, SCE) is 1.36%, compared to 2.29% for bulls born in 2015. This is reflected as the phenotypic base for the trait. As this average approaches zero, PTA variability has decreased as a consequence. The low incidence of reported dystocic calvings naturally constrains PTAs since values below 0% are biologically impossible. Now is not the time to become lax in selection criteria for SCE, but producers should not be alarmed if minimal variability is seen across bulls in the population.
This difference in SCE is partly due to genetic progress and partly due to management improvements, such as better animal handling and increased use of sexed semen. The combined effect of the genetic and phenotypic base changes will result in a reduction in PTAs (indicating easier calvings) of approximately 0.8% in Holsteins. The opposite trend will be observed in Brown Swiss, where PTAs will reflect an increase in difficult calving of about 0.6%.
The calving traits differ from most other traits that CDCB evaluates because they are categorical and not continuous – a cow either experiences dystocia or not; there is nothing in between. To account for this, they are evaluated with sire/maternal grandsire (MGS) threshold models. The application of a breed-specific phenotypic base also makes these traits unique.
World Dairy Expo Dairy Cattle Show entries now open
Entries for the Dairy Cattle Show at the 58th World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, are now being accepted, exclusively online. The first entry deadline is Monday, Sept. 1 at 11:59 p.m. (CDT). Late entries, for an increased fee, can be submitted online through Sept. 12 to be included in the cattle log, or until 5 p.m. (CDT) the day before the respective breed meeting.
The Dairy Cattle Show will run Sunday, Sept. 28 through Friday, Oct. 3. Entry information, the schedule of events, rules and other updates can be found in the premium book – available online. Exhibitors may request a mailed copy of the premium book by contacting Laurie Breuch, dairy systems manager; or Lexa Miller, dairy cattle and contests coordinator.
World Dairy Expo is closely monitoring highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) and is in contact with state and federal animal health officials. The required test for HPAI/H5N1 is an influenza A PCR test for all lactating cattle, reference testing timelines in the health regulations and with your state animal health official. WDE will share new information and directives as provided, for the latest information on H5N1, visit the DATCP Home Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Dairy Cattle webpage.
This year, World Dairy Expo will have specific starting times for both the cow and heifer shows. The Dairy Cattle Show will begin with the International Junior Holstein Show cow classes at noon on Sunday, Sept. 28. The other breed shows will follow a split-day schedule with their heifer and cow classes. Additionally, the International Junior Holstein Show and International Holstein Show will present genomic awards to the highest-ranking genomic total performance index (GTPI) animal placing in the top two-thirds of each heifer and cow class.
